Senior Staff Engineer, GPU Design Verification (Formal Verification)

Samsung Electronics America; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 198,200 - 297,200; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) plan

Tuition assistance

Employee purchase program

MBO bonus compensation

Job summary

Samsung Electronics America is seeking a Senior Staff GPU Design Verification Engineer to enhance the design verification process for next-generation mobile GPUs. This role emphasizes formal verification methodologies to ensure functional correctness and performance excellence.

The ideal candidate will bring over 10 years of experience in semiconductor design verification, a deep understanding of GPU architectures, and proficiency in programming languages such as Python and System Verilog.

You will be part of a collaborative team working on innovative GPU technologies that impact millions worldwide.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience or 8+ years with a Master's Degree or 6+ years with a Ph.D.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and graphics pipelines.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to block and subsystem level formal verification strategy.
• Ensure functional correctness and power gating mechanisms.
• Drive complex debug analysis and root-cause resolution.

Skills

GPU design verification

Formal verification

Programming in Python

System Verilog

Analytical skills

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Master’s Degree

Ph.D.

Tools

Confluence

JIRA

EDA tools

Job description

Position Summary

Samsung, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, is founded on a simple philosophy – the endless pursuit of excellence will create a better world for all. At Samsung Austin Research and Development Center (SARC) and Advanced Computing Lab (ACL), we are building a center of excellence for Intellectual Property (IP) that is applied to high-performance computing devices (mobile, automotive, and other custom market segments) consumed by millions of people around the world. Come build with us!

Role and Responsibilities

As a Senior Staff GPU Design Verification Engineer – Formal Verification, you will help shape block and subsystem level formal verification for Samsung’s next‑generation mobile GPU.

In this high‑impact individual contributor role, you will contribute to the formal verification strategy and hands‑on verification of GPU designs, ensuring functional correctness, power gating mechanisms, and architectural intent. You bring strong expertise in formal methods, GPU design verification, and a strong innovative mindset to explore, experiment, and adopt new formal verification approaches supporting concurrent development cycles.

• Leveraging your expertise in one or more technical areas, you will contribute to the block and subsystem level formal verification strategy and execution by defining verification goals, properties, coverage objectives, and sign‑off criteria for critical GPU features, including clock and power gating.
• You excel at architecting and implementing formal verification environments. You collaborate closely with architecture and RTL teams to develop assertions, properties, and formal models using industry‑standard formal tools and methodologies to validate complex graphics and compute behavior.
• You ensure functional and performance excellence by helping team apply formal techniques to exhaustively verify corner cases, state‑space behaviors, and safety properties that validate beyond simulation‑based verification.
• You help drive complex debug analysis and root‑cause resolution by analyzing formal failures, tracing counterexamples, and collaborating closely with design and architecture teams to ensure verification aligns with architectural intent and improve design robustness.
• You implement advanced formal verification techniques towards proof depth, bug hunting, complexity handling, bounded proof, failure triaging, cover scenarios and convergence analysis to achieve formal verification closure of GPU design features.
• You adhere to project execution and planning approaches using Confluence, JIRA and relevant techniques, and create/maintain documentation for formal verification test plans, convergence reports, complexity analysis reports and results.
• You inspire high performance by mentoring engineers, fostering a culture of ownership, accountability and innovation driven execution, and staying ahead of emerging GPU and formal verification methodologies.

Skills and Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science/Engineering, or 8+ years of experience with a Master’s Degree, or 6+ years of experience with a Ph.D.
• 8+ years of hands‑on experience with GPU, CPU, or advanced semiconductor design verification with a focus in formal verification.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and graphics pipelines.
• Strong programming and scripting skills in Python, Perl, C/C++, or equivalent.
• Proficient in System Verilog and System Verilog Assertions (SVA) languages.
• Strong expertise in formal verification methodologies, including property verification, data path checking, model checking, register verification, connectivity checking and coverage analysis.
• Hands‑on experience with industry‑standard formal verification EDA tools and methodologies.
• Excellent debugging, analytical, and problem‑solving skills, with proven ability to identify bottlenecks, propose solutions. Infuse out‑of‑box‑thinking and guide teams through different phases of design implementation.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and influence in a fast‑paced, global team environment.

Nice to Have

• Knowledge of memory subsystem or coherent interconnects is a plus.
• Proficiency in constrained random verification using IEEE 1800TM Universal Verification Methodology (UVM).
• Experience with developing new formal verification methodologies, flows, or tooling.
• Exposure to low‑power design techniques and verification of power intent (e.g., UPF concepts).
• Demonstrated passion for innovation, ideation, and advancing the state of formal verification practices.

Our Team

The GPU Design Verification team at SARC/ACL owns verification coverage for Samsung’s current and next‑generation mobile GPUs. Our work spans across three areas: Graphic Core, Subsystem Verification, and Formal Verification. As a globally distributed team, we work closely with architecture, design, software, emulation, and system‑level partners to ensure GPU designs function effectively as a complete system. Our Xclipse GPU is the first mobile GPU with ray‑tracing technology that enables console‑level graphics for Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

You will join a diverse, collaborative organization to work on concurrent annual development lifecycles and see your work delivered in real consumer technologies. Here you’ll help build what’s next, broaden your expertise, and solve impactful challenges in a supportive environment that values collaboration, continuous learning, and growth.

Total Rewards

At Samsung – SARC/ACL, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $198,200 and $297,200. Your actual base pay will depend on variables that may include your education skills, qualifications, experience, and work location.

Samsung employees have access to benefits including: medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 401(k), onsite lunch, employee purchase program, tuition assistance (after 6 months), paid time off, student loan program, wellness incentives, and many more. In addition, regular full‑time employees (salaried or hourly) are eligible for MBO bonus compensation, based on company, division, and individual performance.

Additionally, this role might be eligible to participate in long term incentive plan and relocation.

This is an exempt position, which is not eligible for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

U.S. Export Control

This position requires the ability to access information subject to U.S. export control restrictions. Applicants must have the ability to access export‑controlled information or be eligible to receive a government authorization to access export‑controlled information.

Trade Secrets

By submitting an application, you agree not to disclose to Samsung, or induce Samsung to use, any confidential or proprietary information (including trade secrets) belonging to any current or previous employer or other person or entity.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. and its subsidiaries are committed to employing a diverse workforce, and provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, status as a qualified individual with a disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.